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How To Measure the Effectiveness of Your Wet Bulb Socks

Are you trying to get the ideal amount of humidity in your smokehouse?

If the Smokehouse’s temperature is too hot, you’ll dry your meat out too quickly. On the other hand, you can potentially ruin your meats if the humidity is too high.

So how are you able to fix this? Generally, wet bulb socks are used to monitor the humidity and temperature in a smokehouse.

If you’re using these for the first time, you’re going to want to know exactly how effective they are. Thankfully, there’s a way to do this.

Read our guide on measuring the effectiveness of wet bulb socks.

The Wet Bulb Checklist

Prepping the temperature gauge

Remember that you’re not taking the actual temperature of the air within your smokehouse oven. You’re actually looking for the amount of humidity in the air.

To take an accurate reading, you first need to know how to prep your thermometer. Prepping your wet bulb sock to gauge the effectiveness is relatively simple.

First, you’ll need either a thermometer or a thermocouple. Either of these will be effective when you’re taking the temperature. You’ll then need a wet bulb sock.

Submerge the sock in water. This will allow moisture to find its way to the probe. You’ll want to make sure that you’re not placing the probe directly near the sock. Leaving a little space between the two will leave room for proper air circulation.

Where is the ideal spot to place the probe? To ensure the best airflow, you’ll need to place the probe near the exhaust damper.

Now that your wet bulb thermometer is set up properly, you’re ready to gauge the effectiveness.

Understanding how much humidity is present

To understand how effective your gauge is, you’ll need to focus on your wet bulb sock. Simply looking at the sock will tell you the amount of humidity in the air.

If your sock is dry, this means the smoker is dry. Pretty simple, right? The temperature on the thermometer should also read a cooler temperature.

However, if your sock is wet, this means that no air was brought up to the probe. This means the air is too humid. Your temperature gauge will also show the temperature of the air (warmer temperature).

Figuring out the percentage of relative humidity

You can also take the percentage of relative humidity with a wet bulb thermometer. For this, you’ll need a dry bulb thermometer as well.

The dry bulb thermometer is simply a temperature gauge that is not used in connection with a wet bulb sock. It will take the temperature of the air within the space, as opposed to the wet bulb temperature.

Once you have both temperatures, you’re able to compare them on a scale, known as the slide rule. These can often be found online or through a parts company.

Wet bulb socks are a great way to test humidity

The temperature and the amount of moisture in the air is important to know when you’re running a smokehouse. And thankfully, it’s easy to find this information.

Wet bulb socks are an easy tool to use to determine the humidity in the air of your smokehouse. Taking only a few minutes, you can find all the information necessary to smoke quality meats.

If you’re in the need for wet bulb socks, take a look at our collection. We’re here to help, so reach out to us with any questions you may have.